Echoes of the Past (A Jenna Saga Part 1)
Jenna
“Wait, are you serious I am going to be the subject of the next bonus chapter?” I ask in disbelief.
Across from me in the little room I call my home is the Goddess of Fate, Fatunmei wearing her typical kimono with the gold design that seems to move across the white background.
Not that I think anyone cares, but my room is really simple. There’s a bed in the middle that looks relatively simple; no fancy headboard and a pink comforter with flowers on it. Other than that, I have a desk and bookshelf. In the corner I also have a display case with some different weapons in it. Like I said you probably don’t care so back to the matter at hand.
“Yes, you are. I was thinking that the next bonus chapter should focus on one of the killers and I talked it over with PuluOsore and we decided you were the best candidate and that ditz of an author agreed too.” She says back calm as ever.
“I don’t really know what to say, I mean I am honoured of course, but what am I even supposed to talk about.” I reply as I start sweating.
I mean this is a huge opportunity I am being presented with, and it puts a lot of pressure on me.
“Doesn’t matter we will leave that up to you entirely.” She says back as she makes a cup of what seems like tea materialize out of thin air.
“Gulp, if it is up to me then would it be fine for me to talk about my story and how I got to this point? I mean as one of the co-leads in the second book there will be plenty of time for bloodbaths, so I hope that’s fine.” I say really nervously.
“Honestly that is fine, one I told you it is up to you, and two one of the complaints that the author has gotten is that the first book was too wordy from setting up some of the characters and such, so this is perfect. You can do your little about me bonus chapters and that will make it where the book can focus on your other exploits.” She says back as she takes a sip of her liquid.
“Okay, thank you I will do my best. I know the bonus chapters are shorter, so do I need to cut back on what I want to talk about?” I ask with a little more confidence now that I know I will at least be talking about something that I want to talk about.
“So, the thing about that is these bonus chapters are solely for the amusement of the author and as a way for him to expand upon the universe and give his readers more content, so if you feel you will need more than one bonus chapter to tell your tale no problem, go for it. Hell, you will probably help the author out if he has a fall back for future bonus chapters.” She says as she flicks her wrist and the cup disappears into thin air like it never existed to begin.
Man, it must be easy to do dishes if you can just flick your wrist and dishes will appear or vanish.
“Okay that makes me feel a little better about this then, since I don’t have to rush.” I say as I start to think of where I want to begin.
“Okay then, I will leave it to you that and no worries I will make a new chapter start, just so you can begin how you want good luck.” She says this just before she vanishes in a golden flash.
Jenna
Okay I guess this is it; my time to shine. Whoo! This is kind of nerve racking. I mean I am not usually presenting in front of an audience if I’m not trying to scare or murder them. I mean technically I guess you’re reading this so that might not count as performing, but either way I am just going to take a deep breath and then we can begin.
“…” I calmly take a breath to ease my nerves.
Okay I think that I am ready now, so first off, I guess I should give an introduction. I am Jenna Fuilbain or at least at the moment that is the name I go by. My actual name is Echo, that is the name I have used since I first came about.
It probably seems weird to some that I would have an actual name. But is it really? I mean are we that different from one another? What are humans if not creatures made by gods. Are we not the same in that respect? I mean all of us that people would consider monsters were made by PuluOsore we were given feelings, thoughts, and even the ability to strive for more. We have jobs we have to do; places we live in and decorate to our own taste. All in all, we are the same as humans except our forms are more liquid in that they can change and our job is to interact with humans in a way that makes sure fear is in the world.
Now I am not going to say that there aren’t some bad apples amongst us because there are, but even that is the same with humans. Hell, I have had to work my way up to be one of PuluOsore top four and I am the only one that has. The other three were gifted from their creation to be at the top, so they always got the top spots and ways to spread fear. In a way I guess that has made them over the years overly confident and honestly, I hate to speak ill of my colleagues, but they don’t really try and never really have. They also have a bad habit of just fully becoming what they are portraying to the point that their own personalities can be lost. I mean just look at Clay and Darman they were both at least tolerable before this new stint of theirs. Don’t get me wrong they had ego’s of course, but I would say they were okay and we could work together. That is no longer the case now that they have taken on the forms of Michael Carpenter and Chris Cross. It is impossible to work with them now as they don’t even talk anymore, they have little to no actual thought process except for killing and that makes them insufferable. That being said they are still better than Isaac who actually chose that killer because it shared its name with him. He has always thought very highly of himself and it is hard to tell if the killer is influencing him or if it is just his narcissism.
Wow, I guess I got on a little rant there and I apologize for that. All I was trying to say is much like humans some of us seem like they were created with a golden knife in their hands and the rest of us have to make our own crude knives. I will move on though because I don’t want to spend my entire first time talking about the other guys. What got me on the rant in the first place is my tale I want to tell, and that is simply my rags to riches story.
So without further ado, let’s head to my past and you can see how it all started for me.
Echo (50000 BCE)
Coming into existence is something that seems unreal at first, I mean you are nothing and then all of a sudden you exist and everything is new. I mean all your senses are going crazy, but why wouldn’t they be? Up until just a few seconds ago you had no senses. That is how it was for me at least.
Waking up for the first time in my life I feel something under me. I slowly move to look at what is under me and realize that there are things everywhere. I can see things and somehow, I recognize what they are. In front of me is a rock structure hanging down from the ceiling and I know this is a stalactite there is a little bit of water on the tip that is pooling there until it gets too heavy and drops down below. Despite the fact that it should be dark and I know this, I seem to be having little issues actually seeing. It would appear that I am in a cave right now or at least that is what it looks like. Looking around I can a picture on the wall. The picture itself looks blurry and out of focus so I decide to get closer to it. As I stand up my legs are shaky after all it is my first time standing up. I slowly make my way over to the wall using some of the stalactites to steady myself as I make my way. Getting closer I can see what looks like a human screaming depicted on the wall. The term human jumped in my mind making me question what I was. As I finally reach the wall, I can see the entire depiction. There is a human screaming and beside the human is a figure in black that almost seems to be shimmering.
I don’t know if it is the shimmering or if it is simply curiosity, but I feel compelled to touch the black figure on the wall. I slowly reach my hand towards it and for the first time I actually notice my hand is translucent which is odd, but before I can think more on that my hand touches the wall. A flash of light emits and then a tall figure is standing in front of me. The figure, and yes I think that is the right term seeing as how it is almost humanoid in shape, but it is almost like it is just black smoke in a condensed form with the reddest eyes that I have ever seen. To be fair they are the only red eyes I have ever seen so.
“Oh,you must be the newest recruit, creation, or whatever you want to call it. I am a very busy and important agent of fear, so let’s make this quick shall we.” The figure says in a deep voice that reverberates throughout the cave.
I am stunned for a second by the sudden sound coming from all directions at once, (You have to remember I was just created so I am getting used to all of the new sensory stuff). That being said I take a breath and go to speak because that feels like the right response.
“Hello, who are you and who am I, what is all of this and why do I know stuff?” I ask the first thing that comes to my mind and it is almost like I am compelled to ask those specific questions because otherwise why would they come to my mind.
“Well, I guess at least you were made with the ability to speak and some understanding of things it would seem. I guess I will take that, but man do I hate having to help out these new recruits, so listen I am going to give the introductions real quick and explain things and you are going to sit there like a little sponge and absorb it all in. No questions or interruptions do you understand?” He once again says in that deep voice that bounces off the walls making it sound like it is coming from all directions at once.
I don’t know if answering would be interrupting him or not and if that last question was rhetoric or not, so I simply nod my head in response. This seems to be good enough for him or he simply was just pausing and starting again uncaring of my response.
“Well, I guess I will start with introducing myself, the name I go by is Clay, at the moment the form I am taking is that of an flister it is something that spreads quite a bit of fear over on a different planet, but that isn’t really important at the moment.
The Important part for you is I am one of the big three or the guys who were made by the God of Fear PuluOsore, our creator. He is responsible for making sure there is fear in the main shared universe. I guess that needs explained too.
Okay, so all of the gods exist in their own realms or universes if you would, and in those realms they have complete control and say over everything that happens there, that being said there is a shared universe that all the gods are tasked with overseeing. Which is where we come in. Fear is an important factor of life, and it is our job to make sure it is relevant. I mean don’t get me wrong all creatures have small fears, but the problem is if there is nothing to reenforce those small fears or larger fears then it can be easy for them to fade and a world without fear can’t exist. Not only is fear important for helping to keep creatures safe, but it also provides chances for courage to exist.
Anyways back to my point, I was created to cause mass fear, it is the same way with the other two Darman and Isaac who I am sure you will meet sooner or later. We are directly under him and then we have ones that work under us that we take charge of. Basically ,we exist solely so he can pass off all the training and tedious tasks to us. If we are the top tier than I would say there are two other tiers below us, a middle one where you get to actually pick what you appear as; if we approve of course. You’re also expected to spread more fear and as such the amount of time you can stay in the other realm will be limited, but for you that is not important at the moment, because you fall into that bottom tier and that means you’re a nobody. I pick what you are and where you’re being deployed you have no say in anything and will be causing little fear, which means you can stay in the other realm almost non-stop.” He says all of this without really stopping to consider If I might have questions.
I wait a moment to see if he is going to continue and when I feel confident that he has stopped for a moment I start up with some of the questions that I have.
“So, we have actual names are you responsible for that? How do you move up the ranks? I mean how do I get to your level?” I ask this as politely as possible.
I know out of all that he said this might be the oddest question I could ask, but all I could think about the entire time he was speaking was how I wanted to be doing what he was doing one day.
“Ha, gumption I guess, out of all the agents of fear that I have been tasked as the overseer for and trained you’re the only one to ever ask either of those questions. So, I guess I can answer. First off pick your own name I am not your creator and I don’t care as for the second part it’s simple you can’t. If you impress me by doing your job faithfully and skillfully I will promote you to the next tier giving you more freedom, but that is as far as you will ever go. The three of us at the top were handcrafted to be here, that being said you do well enough and I might introduce you to PuluOsore in a meeting sometime and maybe he will even remember your name one day.” Clay says with a chuckle.
If I wasn’t a translucent being at the moment, I am sure that my cheeks would be red, not out of embarrassment, but out of determination.
“Is that so, then what is my first assignment? I am going to be at the top with the rest of you. It might not have never happened before, but I will be the first .You better make room up there in that top three, because it is going to be the fearsome four eventually. Mark my words, I will make all of you remember my name.” I say with as much oomph as I can.
“Okay then, let’s see what you got. Your first task is going to be residing in the dark parts of caves on a planet that is still feeling out what species is going to be dominant and what direction it is going to take. That being said, caves are dark places that because of how they are designed can make things called echoes which is pretty much just the sound bouncing off the walls back to what made it. It causes quite a bit of fright for the intelligent species that exist on the planet. Thus, your job is simply to make sounds in caves that can cause a fright, don’t care how you do it.” Clay says in a tone that says he is about done.
“Okay you can count on me and just so no one forgets on my rise to the top where I started I choose Echo as my name, so you better remember it.” I say back as I have my ghostly hand rise up.
“That’s interesting if nothing else. Okay let’s see if you can make me remember. Now I am going to send you to a series of caves that I want you to manage, if you need to come back or see me for something there will be a cave art like this one that only you can see. If you touch it I will get back to you eventually, that being said try not to need me.” Clays says all of this and then just as quickly as he had appeared he was gone and I was in a new cave.
I did not even feel anything when I was sent here, but this cave is huge compared to the last one I was in. Looking down I can no longer see my translucent limbs; I am just darkness that can make noise. It is an odd feeling to have no type of body, but still be able to accomplish things, although none of that really matters, because all that matters is lying in wait to scare anything that dares come near my cave to start my rise through the ranks.
Jenna
That is how it all started for me. I know that is not the most exciting story, but I feel like if I am being given free reign to tell my story then I have to begin at the beginning. Now I could have gone into further details about being an echo, but it is pretty self-explanatory. That being said I can add that in the five thousand years I resided in that cave I only ever called upon Clay once, and that was at the end when the entrance to the cave collapsed and no one could come in anymore.
Those were simple times and to some extent I do miss them, but I have worked hard to be recognized as one of PuluOsore’s top four and get underlings to train. All of that is a story for another time. I hope I did this right, and you guys enjoyed it and are looking forward to the next chapter in my saga from a simple echo to a top tier agent of fear.
I hope you stay fearful of the day that I show up at your door step. (I think that is a good sign off, hopefully I fulfilled what Fatunmei wanted last thing I want is to displease her.)